5 Softwares You Absolutely Need in Order to Launch a Thriving Wellness Business (and how to ditch the rest)

When was the last time you checked in on your monthly business subscriptions?

My best guess is that it looks something like this:

• School alumni
• Client management
• Meal planning
• Designing
• Social media
• Email marketing
• Website
• Dropbox or drive
• Task management
• Billing or Quickbooks

I’m sure the list goes on.

Somewhere along the way, you start to rack up apps because you have been told they are vital to the success of your business.

But do we really need to sign up for all of them? Is it mandatory?

Are they actually driving success and making our lives easier?

I’ve been there and I subscribed to them all :)

It wasn’t until I ditched the majority of them and started to simplify the processes that I realized it’s easier, more efficient, and much cheaper to only stick to a solid few that are tried and true and can actually help us grow, scale, and streamline our businesses.

How to Tell if Software is Worth it

You name it, there’s an app or software for it. This can be both a blessing and a curse! While there is every single software or app under the sun for your business, especially your digital business, it doesn’t mean you need them all.

So, how can you tell if an app or software is really worth it?

Especially as far as nutrition businesses go?

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself before signing up or subscribing to new software for your business:

1. How much does this software cost me (per month, per year, etc.)
2. What does this software do for me and how does it help? (examples of how it might help in the bullets below)
3. Saves time via XYZ
4. Makes me money by <insert>
5. Improves a particular business outcome (i.e. happier clients, longer relationships, higher fees, etc.)
6. If I didn’t have software, how would I do this and how long would that take?
7. What other ways can I use this software? - for example, I purchased Mail Chimp for email marketing, but it also has landing pages and customer surveys, so that will help with XYZ.
8. As I grow, will this software still make sense?
9. This last question is important, as you don’t want to get yourself into a situation where you’ve ‘outgrown’ a piece of software and now have to re-invent a key part of your business during your growth phase.
10. Also, many systems use the ‘free’ concept and then ratchet up fees as you grow.  This can completely change your financial model, so it’s best to understand what the model is before you commit.

It can be very time-consuming to do a comparative analysis of all of the different apps and software out there, so we figured we could save you some time, headache, and coin by dishing out our top 5 wellness business-related software that many practitioners in our community swear by!

These are tried and true, used by hundreds, if not thousands of practitioners every year. If you are just getting started, this is all you need!

The top 5 Softwares You Absolutely Need When You’re Launching Your Wellness Business:

#1 Meal Garden starting @ $44.95/month

Okay, we know we are biased BUT hear us out...if you’re just starting out Meal Garden can be used to establish your business and get that much-needed revenue flowing, in a way that’s less, well salesy.

Meal Garden is built to provide a one-two punch for your nutrition business, in a fun and easy way.

You can use thousands of pre-existing recipes, meal plans, collections, and programs to quickly create compelling content packages and then share those packages through your various channels to build your audience.

Think things like lead magnets, recipe packs, programs but they are accessible from your fully-branded meal planning platform.  So, not only do you provide the content they need, but a system to put the content to work.   All fully branded.

You can accept payments as well, one-time or re-occurring.

ALL of this is done for a reasonable fee of $30 USD/mo, and right now, because you are reading this, if you click here you can get 3 months for the price of 1!

Biased? Yes

Honest? Absolutely.

Does it work? 100%!

If you’re curious about how you could use Meal Garden to launch your business, click here for a video overview and special offer.

#2 Social Media *but keep it simple and stick to 2. - FREE

Social media is daunting but necessary!

If you only had 2 ways to promote yourself, you could use Meal Garden in combination with your socials and still make quite the impact.

I just recommend sticking to 2 as to not overwhelm.

What are the best 2 for acquiring new leads? At the time of writing, I’d say Facebook and Instagram, and they are by far the easiest to launch.

Just make sure you have these things when getting started on social media:

*A username & business email

*A logo and color palette

*Clarity around what your core brand identity is (or niche/ audience you serve) and messaging

Here is a great guide on getting started on social media.

You can also discover how to authentically grow your brand on social media by tuning in to this insightful podcast episode.

#3. Canva! FREE or go Pro for under $200/year

Canva is one of those tools that make us incredibly happy! Gone are the days where you have to hire out an expensive designer or try to create branded visuals in Microsoft word. Canva allows you to do everything you need in order to make your business shine. You can create templates and designs for your:

• Social media
• Business and marketing materials
• Landing pages (images, etc.)
• Business cards
• Presentations

There are so many uses for Canva and they keep growing, be sure to get a free account now.

#4. Task management & organization - FREE

An important piece of the puzzle is a tool to keep you organized and to help you visualize the progress you are making (or not making) and for this, you need task management.

This is incredibly important for keeping you organized and up to speed, as well as for delivering extra content to your clients.

Some of my favorite tools are:

• Asana (my favorite)
• Monday
• Trello
• Notion HQ (this product overlaps a little with Google Drive, but it’s worth checking out)

#5. Google Drive

You need a tool for storing files and creating documents.   This is hands down the easiest, most secure, and most affordable solution.

As you grow, you can add members, create domains, do everything you need to establish yourself, and grow without too much hassle.

#6. (Bonus) Calendly

You need to make it easy for people to book time with you and Calendly is the leader in the space.   They have a great free plan, it’s easily integrated into your marketing material and looks great.

In Summary

The only 5 systems that you need when you are launching or maintaining a wellness business!

What do you think?

Oh, and if you are looking for 5 Tools to Help You Impress Your Clients in Your Online Practice, look no further. This blog post has everything you need to save money, time and streamline your business!